Friday 2nd January: We took the 8.30am water taxi to Belize City (12bz each) and then took the local bus from there to San Ignacio (7bz each). The bus stopped every 50yds all the way there. There were no actual bus stops every time someone wanted to get on or off they'd just stick their hand out or go to get off and the bus would stop - bonkers!! You'd have people in the street standing a few meters away from each other and the bus would stop twice. So we reached San Ignacio at around 1.30pm where we got a taxi to the Parrots Nest which was a few miles out of town in the middle of nowhere. We booked it because in the guide book it said you stay in tree houses which sounded like fun.

We checked in and immediately started to wonder why we'd decided to come here - there was noone else around, we were in the middle of nowhere and the 'tree house' was not quite as idylic as it sounded - it just felt damp - not quite what we expected for 40USD per night! The actual setting was really beautiful though, with the river at the end of the garden and you could sit in the main area of the wooden cabin-like hostel overlooking it.
 
We went off to try to find some lunch and found the one place in the village that could make us something and had a burger.
We went back to the hostel and chatted to the owner and her boyfriend and some other guests appeared out of nowhere Mike, Kelly, Lara and Noel (hoorah!). We were discussing what activities to do and ended up deciding to hire a car with the others to explore the next day. That afternoon we took some inner tubes and tubed down the river near the hostel - it was really good fun.
Noel had a rubber ring which kept deflating so he ended up swimming a lot of the way.
The owner of the hostel cooked dinner for all the guests for 21bz each. Although it was pretty expensive, the food was fabulous.

Saturday 3rd January: We got the hire car and went into town to get some breakfast, bought a packed lunch from the cafe and headed off for our adventure. The first 'incident' happened even before we left the town. Many of the roads in town have deep concrete ditches along the edge and I can't remember who was driving, Kelly or Lara, but she took a corner too sharply and the car wheel was hanging over the edge of the ditch we all screamed for her to stop the car. She stopped just in the nick of time - if she'd continued forward the car would've been in the ditch and wrecked!! We managed to manouver it out of harm and set off once again for Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve.
The next incident acurred when we realised that one of the tyres was flat! The boys managed to change it and when we inspected the offending tyre we could see why it was flat. There was almost no tread left on it whatsoever and it was worn down to the mesh!!



First stop was the Rio Frio Cave, basically a massive cave containing limestone formations. We explored it and then we visited Rio on Pools where we had a swim and played on the natural water slides.

Then we went to Big Rock Falls where a massive 150ft waterfall plunges into a huge deep pool. We jumped in off a rock and generally messed about before leaving to visit the Five Sisters Falls.
On the way back we dropped into Misty Mountain Liquers to sample a few of the local liquers and ended up buying a bottle - absolutely delicious!! It was a really good day out - really fun.

Noel had arranged a 'date' with a guy he'd met in the town that evening so we all went in with him after dinner and had a few drinks in one of the local bars. Another couple who the other guys had travelled with before also appeared out of nowhere! Mike joined one of the poker games which was going on in the bar so we didn't see him again all evening! Noel's date didn't show up so we chatted with him all evening. The bar was absolutely dreadful - really dingey and to be honest we were pretty glad to get out of there!!

Sunday 4th Jan: We were awoken by banging music coming from across the river - it seems we'd visited on the one weekend of the year the neighbours always celebrate something ....very loudly!! For such a remote place it seemed a little bizarre!! We had some breakfast and did some Iguana-spotting at the river before heading into town in a 'collectivo' taxi for 2bz
 


In the afternoon we went to Barton Creek Caves which is an underground water cave system. We went in canoes with a guide and with powerful spotlights. It is believed that the Maya once used these caves for ritual ceremonies.

The cave is full of large and colorful formations, skeletal remains and other cultural artifacts left behind by the Maya centuries ago. Our guide was very good, but I couldn't concentrate on much of what he was saying due to having the worst stomach ache....I think a dodgey lunch was to blame!! :o(

We had dinner at the hostel and had a little after dinner game of scrabble - which I lost!